Just finished installing my mini pier in the back garden, it's basically a great lump of 6x6 timber, treated and concreted in the ground about 2feet deep ..... I know wood isn't ideal as it moves but at this thickness and length I don't think it should be to much of a problem. It would be a different story if I was coming out of the ground 4or even 5feet as this would leave more timber exposed to the elements and would be prone to twist or warp so not ideal..... I only need it this high so I can feed all the wires through the window behind and control from inside.Note the aluminium pier top that accepts my mount head, made by Brian that simply bolted onto the timber top.The only problem I can see is that I'm going to have to lie down on the ground to polar align next clear evening, but all being well I should only have to do this once !!

I'm going to have to lie down on the ground to polar align next clear evening

If you just get an approximate alignment with your polar-scope, then you'll be able to use the declination drift method with your webcam to get it spot-on. But methinks that will take more than one evening!

A few people asked me last night why I had installed the pier so close to the ground that it didn't seem practical. If I was using the scope for observing then they would be right as I wouldnt fancy kneeling in the flower bed to try and look throught the eyepiece. But, as I just do mainly imaging now it dosn't make much difference.As you can see in the picture the inside of the house steps down from the garden, so the scope is virtually at the perfect height for controlling through the window, and sitting on the sofa ! I can actually set up the scope on the mount and wire everything together from inside.From this position I can image anything in the East, most of the South and a fair bit of North but nothing to the West because of the house but you cant have everything all the time eh.The scope will be very sheltered from wind in this position also so once its polar aligned it should be a very sturdy set up with the added bonus that I dont need to keep polar aligning every session, and there is no danger of me kicking the tripod once set up which I still seem to manage to do even though I'm telling myself not to !!

Managed to get it all polar aligned this evening and proceeded to fit the scope and wire it all up...... Seems to work perfectly for what I intended, that is, being able to do everything from inside the house.I also managed to take a five minute exposure through my c8, guided of course, and the stars still be round ! This is the first time I have taken anything over 30 seconds through this scope and not got trailing, so very pleased. After an initial problem of the dec axis being turned off in phd (thanks Ross for the help) but then nothing in astronomy works perfectly first time every time eh

That's fantastic Dean.Let's hope you can put your new found freedom from the shackles of portable setup issues & finally be able to use it for the purpose you bought it for - imaging DSO's that exceed a minute each frame!!!CheersAndy

Made a modification to my mount on the pier today so that i can use the Starwave and guide at the same time whithout having to mount the Starwave on top of my C8 !!Its a dovetail cut into some hardwood to accept the refractor with the guide camera permanently attached to the front of it so the scopes can be changed with ease but the guide camera remains on the mount.It works fine as a prototype but could really do with being made from metal...........Brian !!

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